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After ascending the throne in 672, Wamba faced a revolt from Hilderic, governor of Nîmes, who had himself aspired to the kingship. Hilderic was supported by Gunhild, Bishop of Maguelonne. Wamba sent the dux (general) Paul to put down the rebels, but upon his arrival at Narbonne, he induced his officers to renounce their loyalty to Wamba and elect him king as Flavius Paulus. He was joined by Hilderic and his followers, as well as Duke Ranosindus of Tarraconensis and the gardingatus (a palace official) Hildigisus. Paul recruited "multitudes" of Franks and Basques to bolster his forces.[2] Following this the Visigothic cities in Gaul and a large part of northeastern Hispania came over to Paul's side.[3]

During these events, Wamba was in Cantabria campaigning against the Basques.[4] In response, Wamba marched into the Tarraconensis region, and in a few days turned most of the cities back to his side. He then divided his forces into three groups, attacking over the Pyrenees by way of Llívia (then the capital of Cerdanya), Auch, and the coastal road, taking the fortresses of Collioure, Vulturaria, and Llívia, finding "much" gold and silver there.[5]

As Wamba moved on Narbonne, Paul placed General Wittimer in charge of the city and retired to Nîmes. Wamba's forces quickly subdued Narbonne and then, after some difficulty, secured the surrender of Nîmes on September 3, 673. Paul and the other rebel leaders surrendered and, three days later, were brought to trial, scalped, and imprisoned for life.

A period of peace followed and, in 674, Wamba rebuilt the Roman walls around Toledo. He also fortified other sites about this time, possibly Hondarribia (Fuenterrabia),[6] a small village in Spain facing the French border over the Txingurri bay, as a military thrust along the Bay of Biscay up to the Pyrenees is attested to in contemporary sources. Wamba brought the Astures and Ruccones (Luggones) under his control and incorporated them into a new province. They had been fighting for their independence since the Visigothic invasions of the 5th century but now finally relented.

After the rebellion, the kingdom faced a new threat in the form of Saracen raiders. In the Chronicle of Alfonso III (written 200 years later) it stated, "In Wamba's time, 270 Saracen ships attacked the coast of Hispania and there all of them were burned." A single attack of this size is doubtful, however, because no other source mentions it. The Chronicle of 754 declared Moors "had long been raiding" Andalusia "and simultaneously devastating many cities"; however, the Chronicle of 754s most recent English translator, Kenneth Baxter Wolf, holds that this refers to the year before the defeat of King Roderic by the Moors, over three decades after the removal of Wamba.[7]

The law books and decrees of the time reveal a substantial erosion of domestic tranquility and order within the kingdom. In the Visigothic law books, Wamba decrees that all the people, regardless of their religion, and even if they are clergy, are required to defend the kingdom if it is attacked by a foreign foe. This law was created to solve a problem of desertion: "For, whenever an enemy invades the provinces of our kingdom . . . [many of] those who inhabit the border . . . disappear so that, by this means, there is no mutual support in battle." This rationale may imply a frequency of raids. That the people were often unwilling to defend the kingdom is further shown by another of Wamba's edicts, in which slaves were freed in order to the fill the ranks of the army. This suggests not only a shortage of volunteers from among the Hispano-Romans who made up the bulk of the population ruled by the Visigothic lords, but also an army heavy in conscripts and the coerced.

In 675, the Third Council of Braga was held in Braga (Bracara), Hispania. This Catholic conclave promulgated eight decrees affecting ritual, the handling of sacred vessels, who may or may not live with a priest, unacceptable forms of punishment of clergy, and unacceptable forms of payment of clergy and rectors. In the same year, the Eleventh Council of Toledo was convened in November.

Wamba was a reformist king who, according to Charles Julian Bishko, "tried to set up at Aquis (Chaves) in Lusitania a monastic see of the same type as Dume–Braga, i. e., involving the sort of episcopus sub regula associated with early pactualism. This manoeuvre was successfully blocked by the metropolitan church of Emérita with the full support of the fathers of the XIIth Council of Toledo (681)."[8]

In 680, Wamba fell ill or (according to the Chronicle of Alfonso III two hundred years later) was poisoned in Pampliega, near Burgos. He received the order of penance in anticipation of his death, and as a result was forced to step down as king upon his recovery. The Chronicle of Alfonso III blames Wamba's successor Erwig for this; some modern commentators have blamed Julian of Toledo, who was made primate of the Visigothic church by Erwig (in reward for his services?).[9] But Julian perpetuated the memory of Wamba in his account of the revolt of Paul, Historia Wambae Regís.

According to one tradition, Wamba was born in Egitânia, a modest village surrounded by Roman walls that is today called Idanha-a-Velha, and located to the northeast of Castelo Branco in Portugal. A Spanish tradition has him born in Galicia in the parish of Santa María de Dozón in an old house with a shield. Manuel de Sousa da Silva, a seventeenth-century Portuguese genealogist, in his work Nobiliário das Gerações de Entre-Douro-e-Minho, refers to this possibility, adding that he was of the lineage of the Gothic kings, but so poor that he was a farmer. Modern genealogists make him a son of Tulga, a possibility sustained by the fact of his being a humble man of royal descent, since his father was deposed at a young age, and when his own sons were still infants.

The most famous tradition, however, has him born and raised in Pujerra (or Buxarra as it was once called) in the Málaga Province, an Andalusian mountain village, nestled amid forests of chestnut trees, near the Genal river in southern Spain. The ruins of Molino de Capilla (Mill of the Chapel) are nearby, and close to which lay the village of Cenay, which some consider to be Wamba's actual birthplace.

One begins with Wamba's father, king of the Visigoths, who in this story was also named Wamba. Two women of his court, a servant girl and a noble lady, became pregnant at the same time. To avoid a scandal that might implicate the king, both women fled the capital. They found their way to an Andalusian village that, because it was so well hidden in the forest, provided an ideal place for secret births. Both women brought forth boys, and they were placed in the care of a servant girl to be raised in the area.

When the time came to groom a successor for the king, there seemed to be no suitable heir. Soldiers were dispatched to the village to find the illegitimate children. After their arrival, they overheard a peasant woman call to her son named Wamba, who was tending cattle with a stick. The soldiers knew they had come upon the youth they sought and declared: "You are the rightful king and we must ask you to come with us to the palace." Wamba was unwilling, or at least pretended to be. He took his stick and thrust it into the ground, saying, "I will only accept the throne if this stick takes root." The stick he carried, was of chopo or black poplar, which easily takes root in fertile soil. When it began to grow, Wamba agreed to go with the soldiers to become the new king of the Visigoths, being elected and crowned in what is today the tiny village of Wamba in the region around Madrid.

A second legend is related by Charles Morris in Historical Tales, the Romance of Reality: Spanish. In this version, instead of being a boy, Wamba was an old man in the village, and owned land and possessions there. The year was 672.

In those days, when a king died and left no son, the Goths elected a new one, seeking their best and worthiest, and holding the election in the place where the old king had died. It was in the little village of Gerticos, some eight miles from the city of Valladolid, that King Recesuinto [a.k.a. Recceswinth] had sought health and found death. Hither came the electors,—the great nobles, the bishops, and the generals,—and here they debated who should be king. . . .

Saint Leo, declaring he had been given divine guidance, instructed the electors to seek out a husbandman named Wamba. So scouts were dispersed throughout the land until, at length, Wamba was found tilling one of his fields. "Leave your plough in the furrow", they said to him; "nobler work awaits you. You have been elected king of Hispania." "There is no nobler work", answered Wamba. "Seek elsewhere your monarch. I prefer to rule over my fields."

The astonished heralds knew not what to make of this. To them the man who would not be king must be a saint—or an idiot. They reasoned, begged, implored, until Wamba, anxious to get rid of them, said: "I will accept the crown when the dry rod in my hand grows green again,—and not till then."

After he thrust it into the ground, all were astonished to see it suddenly become a green plant with leaves growing out of the top. Heaven had decided the matter. So Wamba "went with the heralds to the electoral congress". Once there, however, he again tried to refuse the throne. At this, one of the Visigothic chieftains drew his sword and threatened to behead Wamba if he did not accept the crown. Wamba relented and consented.

The legend of the stick thrust into the ground is also associated with the town of Guimarães, southwest of Braga in the Costa Verde of Portugal (the northwest corner of the country). There, because Wamba never withdrew the stick afterwards, it is said it grew into an olive tree. Though the tree is now gone, the site is marked either by the monastery of Nossa Senhora da Oliveira (Our Lady of the Olive) or the Largo da Oliveira town square, each named for the legendary tree.

In a 10th-century Life of Saint Giles, written for the benefit of pilgrims, a legend is recorded about how, one day, when King Wamba (also known as Flavius) was out hunting in the forest between Arles and Nîmes in Provence, he began to pursue a hind (deer). The animal fled, seeking refuge in the cave where Giles the hermit was quietly praying. (In some versions of the story, the hind, provided by God, was Giles' sole companion and sustained him on its milk.) Wamba shot his arrow into the opening. But he missed the hind, striking Giles instead, wounding him in the leg and causing a permanent disability. The king's hunting dogs then rushed in for the kill. But when Wamba arrived he found his dogs miraculously rooted to the spot. Discovering what he had done, he begged forgiveness and tried to make amends. But Giles continued his prayers, refusing all help or recompense. The king nonetheless had doctors care for the wound. He also offered Giles the land upon which to build a monastery. But Giles refused.

Over time, however, because of the saint's fame as a sage and miracle worker, multitudes gathered at his cave. Around 674, Wamba built them a monastery. Giles became its first abbot. Soon a little town grew up there, known as Saint-Gilles-du-Gard.

Because of this tradition, Giles became the patron saint of cripples, lepers, and nursing mothers. His emblem is an arrow. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the king in this story must have originally been a Frank, "since the Franks had expelled the Visigoths from the neighbourhood of Nîmes almost a century and a half earlier".

One ambitious noble named Paul, who thought it would be an easy thing to take the throne from an old man who had shown so plainly that he did not want it, rose in rebellion. He soon learned his mistake. Wamba met him in battle, routed his army, and took him prisoner. Paul expected nothing less than to have his head stricken off, but Wamba simply ordered that it should be shaved.

A shaved or tonsured head was the mark of one who had assumed monastic orders, which meant the man "could not serve as king or chieftain, but must spend the remainder of his days in seclusion as a monk".

Later an ambitious youth named Erwig, pursuing the overthrow of the king, administered a sleeping potion. While Wamba was under, Erwig shaved the crown of his head. As before, Gothic law was clear. Wamba could no longer be king. So he accepted this change and happily became a monk, abdicating the throne on October 14, 680, to live out the last seven years of his life in seclusion from the world (dying in 687). Erwig became king in his place.

Thus it was that Wamba the husbandman first became king and afterwards monk. In all his stations—farmer, king, and monk—he acquitted himself well and worthily, and his name has come down to us from the mists of time as one of those rare men of whom we know little, but all that little good.

Ironically, it was Wamba's nephew, son of his sister Ariberga, Ergica, who married Erwig's daughter and became the new king at his father in law's death.

^Bishop Julian of Toledo, in his History of King Wamba, accuses Paul of crowning himself with a votive crown King Reccared (the king who converted the Visigoths from Arianism to Catholicism) had dedicated to the body of St. Felix in Girona. Historia Wambae Regis in MGH, Scriptorum rerum Merovingicarum t. V, p. 522.

^Historia Wambae Regis in MGH, Scriptorum rerum Merovingicarum t. V, p. 507. Roger Collins, The Basques (2nd ed., 1990, Blackwell: Cambridge, Mass.) points out that "there exists a measure of looseness about the use of the name of Cantabria" both before and after Wamba's time, so it could include a wider area than at present. See Collins, pp. 92-93 & 138-139.

^Kenneth Baxter Wolf, tr., Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain, 2nd edition, Liverpool University Press, 1999, p. 131. ISBN9780853235545 The Chronicle of 754 mentions Wamba's building projects in Toledo and the Eleventh Council of Toledo, but does not identify any Muslim raids in his time.

^Charles Julian Bishko. Spanish and Portuguese Monastic History 600-1300. IV, Portuguese Pactual Monasticism in the Eleventh Century: The Case of Sao Salvador De Vacariça. (Published originally in Estudos de Història de Portugal: Homenagen a A.H. de Oliveira Margues (Lisbon: Editorial Estampa, 1982); reprinted with permission). The Library of Iberian Resources Online. Retrieved 11 September 2014.

1.
Madrid
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Madrid is the capital city of the Kingdom of Spain and the largest municipality in both the Community of Madrid and Spain as a whole. The city has a population of almost 3.2 million with an area population of approximately 6.5 million. It is the third-largest city in the European Union after London and Berlin, the municipality itself covers an area of 604.3 km2. Madrid lies on the River Manzanares in the centre of both the country and the Community of Madrid, this community is bordered by the communities of Castile and León. As the capital city of Spain, seat of government, and residence of the Spanish monarch, Madrid is also the political, economic, the current mayor is Manuela Carmena from Ahora Madrid. Madrid is home to two football clubs, Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid. Madrid is the 17th most liveable city in the according to Monocle magazine. Madrid organises fairs such as FITUR, ARCO, SIMO TCI, while Madrid possesses modern infrastructure, it has preserved the look and feel of many of its historic neighbourhoods and streets. Cibeles Palace and Fountain have become one of the monument symbols of the city, the first documented reference of the city originates in Andalusan times as the Arabic مجريط Majrīṭ, which was retained in Medieval Spanish as Magerit. A wider number of theories have been formulated on possible earlier origins, according to legend, Madrid was founded by Ocno Bianor and was named Metragirta or Mantua Carpetana. The most ancient recorded name of the city Magerit comes from the name of a built on the Manzanares River in the 9th century AD. Nevertheless, it is speculated that the origin of the current name of the city comes from the 2nd century BC. The Roman Empire established a settlement on the banks of the Manzanares river, the name of this first village was Matrice. In the 8th century, the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula saw the changed to Mayrit, from the Arabic term ميرا Mayra. The modern Madrid evolved from the Mozarabic Matrit, which is still in the Madrilenian gentilic, after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Córdoba, Madrid was integrated in the Taifa of Toledo. With the surrender of Toledo to Alfonso VI of León and Castile, the city was conquered by Christians in 1085, Christians replaced Muslims in the occupation of the centre of the city, while Muslims and Jews settled in the suburbs. The city was thriving and was given the title of Villa, since 1188, Madrid won the right to be a city with representation in the courts of Castile. In 1202, King Alfonso VIII of Castile gave Madrid its first charter to regulate the municipal council, which was expanded in 1222 by Ferdinand III of Castile

2.
Medieval Latin
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Despite the clerical origin of many of its authors, medieval Latin should not be confused with Ecclesiastical Latin. There is no consensus on the exact boundary where Late Latin ends. Medieval Latin had a vocabulary, which freely borrowed from other sources. Greek provided much of the vocabulary of Christianity. The various Germanic languages spoken by the Germanic tribes, who invaded southern Europe, were major sources of new words. Germanic leaders became the rulers of parts of the Roman Empire that they conquered, other more ordinary words were replaced by coinages from Vulgar Latin or Germanic sources because the classical words had fallen into disuse. Latin was also spread to such as Ireland and Germany. Works written in the lands, where Latin was a language with no relation to the local vernacular, also influenced the vocabulary. English words like abstract, subject, communicate, matter, probable, the high point of the development of medieval Latin as a literary language came with the Carolingian renaissance, a rebirth of learning kindled under the patronage of Charlemagne, king of the Franks. On the other hand, strictly speaking there was no form of medieval Latin. Every Latin author in the period spoke Latin as a second language, with varying degrees of fluency, and syntax, grammar. For instance, rather than following the classical Latin practice of placing the verb at the end. Unlike classical Latin, where esse was the auxiliary verb, medieval Latin writers might use habere as an auxiliary, similar to constructions in Germanic. The accusative and infinitive construction in classical Latin was often replaced by a clause introduced by quod or quia. This is almost identical, for example, to the use of que in similar constructions in French. In every age from the late 8th century onwards, there were learned writers who were familiar enough with classical syntax to be aware that these forms and usages were wrong, however the use of quod to introduce subordinate clauses was especially pervasive and is found at all levels. That resulted in two features of Medieval Latin compared with Classical Latin. First, many attempted to show off their knowledge of Classical Latin by using rare or archaic constructions

3.
Visigoths
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The Visigoths were the western branches of the nomadic tribes of Germanic peoples referred to collectively as the Goths. These tribes flourished and spread throughout the late Roman Empire in Late Antiquity, the Visigoths emerged from earlier Gothic groups who had invaded the Roman Empire beginning in 376 and had defeated the Romans at the Battle of Adrianople in 378. Relations between the Romans and the Visigoths were variable, alternately warring with one another and making treaties when convenient, the Visigoths invaded Italy under Alaric I and sacked Rome in 410. The Visigoths first settled in southern Gaul as foederati of the Romans – a relationship established in 418, however, they soon fell out with their Roman hosts and established their own kingdom with its capital at Toulouse. They next extended their authority into Hispania at the expense of the Suebi, in 507, however, their rule in Gaul was ended by the Franks under Clovis I, who defeated them in the Battle of Vouillé. After that, the Visigoth kingdom was limited to Hispania, in or around 589, the Visigoths under Reccared I converted from Arianism to Nicene Christianity, gradually adopting the culture of their Hispano-Roman subjects. Their legal code, the Visigothic Code abolished the practice of applying different laws for Romans. Once legal distinctions were no longer being made between Romani and Gothi, they became known collectively as Hispani, in the century that followed, the region was dominated by the Councils of Toledo and the episcopacy. In 711 or 712, a force of invading African Moors defeated the Visigoths in the Battle of Guadalete and their king and many members of their governing elite were killed, and their kingdom rapidly collapsed. During their governance of the Kingdom of Hispania, the Visigoths built several churches that survive and they also left many artifacts, which have been discovered in increasing numbers by archaeologists in recent times. The Treasure of Guarrazar of votive crowns and crosses is the most spectacular and they founded the only new cities in western Europe from the fall of the Western half of the Roman Empire until the rise of the Carolingian dynasty. Many Visigothic names are still in use in modern Spanish and Portuguese, contemporaneous references to the Gothic tribes use the terms Vesi, Ostrogothi, Thervingi, and Greuthungi. Most scholars have concluded that the terms Vesi and Tervingi were both used to refer to one particular tribe, while the terms Ostrogothi and Greuthungi were used to refer to another. In addition, the Notitia Dignitatum equates the Vesi with the Tervingi in a reference to the years 388–391, the earliest sources for each of the four names are roughly contemporaneous. The first recorded reference to the Tervingi is in a eulogy of the emperor Maximian, delivered in or shortly after 291 and it says that the Tervingi, another division of the Goths, joined with the Taifali to attack the Vandals and Gepidae. The first known use of the term Ostrogoths is in a document dated September 392 from Milan and this would explain why the latter terms dropped out of use shortly after 400, when the Goths were displaced by the Hunnic invasions. Wolfram believes that the people Zosimus describes were those Tervingi who had remained behind after the Hunnic conquest, for the most part, all of the terms discriminating between different Gothic tribes gradually disappeared after they moved into the Roman Empire. The last indication that the Goths whose king reigned at Toulouse thought of themselves as Vesi is found in a panegyric on Avitus by Sidonius Apollinaris dated 1 January 456, most recent scholars have concluded that Visigothic group identity emerged only within the Roman Empire

4.
Visigothic Kingdom
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The Visigothic Kingdom or Kingdom of the Visigoths was a kingdom that occupied what is now southwestern France and the Iberian Peninsula from the 5th to the 8th centuries. The Kingdom maintained independence from the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire, the kingdom of the 6th and 7th centuries is sometimes called the regnum Toletanum after the new capital of Toledo. The ethnic distinction between the indigenous Hispano-Roman population and the Visigoths had largely disappeared by this time, Liber Iudiciorum abolished the old tradition of having different laws for Romans and for Visigoths. Most of the Visigothic Kingdom was conquered by Arab Umayyad troops from North Africa in 711 AD and these gave birth to the medieval Kingdom of Asturias when a local landlord called Pelayo, most likely of Gothic origin, was elected Princeps by the Astures. The Visigoths also developed the influential law code known in Western Europe as the Liber Iudiciorum. From 407 to 409 AD, the Germanic Vandals, with the allied Alans and Suebi, crossed the frozen Rhine, for their part, the Visigoths under Alaric famously sacked Rome in 410, capturing Galla Placidia, the sister of Western Roman emperor Honorius. After he married Placidia, the Emperor Honorius enlisted him to provide Visigothic assistance in regaining nominal Roman control of Hispania from the Vandals, Alans and Suevi. In 418, Honorius rewarded his Visigothic federates under King Wallia by giving land in the Garonne valley of Gallia Aquitania on which to settle. This probably took place under hospitalitas, the rules for billeting army soldiers, the Visigoths with their capital at Toulouse, remained de facto independent, and soon began expanding into Roman territory at the expense of the feeble Western empire. Under Theodoric I, the Visigoths attacked Arles and Narbonne, but were checked by Flavius Aetius using Hunnic mercenaries, by 451, the situation had reversed and the Huns had invaded Gaul, now Theodoric fought under Aetius against Attila the Hun in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Attila was driven back, but Theodoric was killed in the battle, the Vandals completed the conquest of North Africa when they took Carthage on October 19,439 and the Suevi had taken most of Hispania. The Roman emperor Avitus now sent the Visigoths into Hispania, Theodoric II invaded and defeated the King of the Suevi, Rechiarius, at the battle on the river Orbigo in 456 near Asturica Augusta and then sacked Bracara Augusta the Suevi capital. The Goths sacked the cities in Spain quite brutally, they massacred a portion of the population and even attacked some holy places, theoderic took control over Hispania Baetica, Carthaginiensis and southern Lusitania. In 461, the Goths received the city of Narbonne from the emperor Libius Severus in exchange for their support. This led to a revolt by the army and by Gallo-Romans under Aegidius, as a result, Romans under Severus and the Visigoths fought other Roman troops, in 466, Euric, who was the youngest son of Theodoric I, came to the Visigothic throne. He is infamous for murdering his elder brother Theodoric II who had become king by murdering his elder brother Thorismund. Under Euric, the Visigoths began expanding in Gaul and consolidating their presence in the Iberian peninsula, Euric fought a series of wars with the Suebi who retained some influence in Lusitania, and brought most of this region under Visigothic power, taking Emerita Augusta in 469. Euric also attacked the Western Roman Empire, capturing Hispania Tarraconensis in 472, by 476, he had extended his rule to the Rhone and the Loire rivers which comprised most of southern Gaul

5.
Hispania
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Hispania was the Roman name for the Iberian Peninsula. Under the Republic, Hispania was divided into two provinces, Hispania Citerior and Hispania Ulterior, during the Principate, Hispania Ulterior was divided into two new provinces, Baetica and Lusitania, while Hispania Citerior was renamed Tarraconensis. Subsequently, the part of Tarraconensis was split off, first as Hispania Nova. The name, Hispania, was used in the period of Visigothic rule. The modern placenames Spain and Hispaniola are both derived from Hispania, one theory holds it to be of Punic derivation, from the Phoenician language of colonizing Carthage. Specifically, it may derive from a Punic cognate of Hebrew אי-שפניא meaning Island of the Hyrax or island of the hare or island of the rabbit. Others derive the word from Phoenician span, in the sense of hidden, and make it indicate a hidden, that is, Isidore of Sevilla considered Hispania derived from Hispalis. Occasionally Hispania was called Hesperia Ultima, the last western land in Greek, by Roman writers, another theory holds that the name derives from Ezpanna, the Basque word for border or edge, thus meaning the farthest area or place. The use of Latin Hispania, Castilian España, Catalan Espanya and French Espaigne, a document dated 1292 mentions the names of foreigners from Medieval Spain as Gracien dEspaigne. You are, Oh Spain, holy and always happy mother of princes and peoples and you, by right, are now the queen of all provinces, from whom the lights are given not only the sunset, but also the East. Navarre followed soon after in 1512, and Portugal in 1580, during this time, the concept of Spain was still unchanged. The King of Portugal would protest energetically when during a public act King Fernando talked about the Crown of Spain and it was after the independence of Portugal in 1640 when the concept of Spain started to shift and be applied to all the Peninsula except Portugal. Even so, Portugal would still complain when the terms Crown of Spain or Monarchy of Spain were still used in the 18th century with the Treaty of Utrecht. The Iberian peninsula has long inhabited, first by early hominids such as Homo erectus, Homo heidelbergensis. In the Paleolithic period, the Neanderthals entered Iberia and eventually took refuge from the migrations of modern humans. In the 40th millennium BC, during the Upper Paleolithic and the last ice age and these were nomadic hunter-gatherers originating on the steppes of Central Asia. When the last Ice Age reached its maximum extent, during the 30th millennium BC, in the millennia that followed, the Neanderthals became extinct and local modern human cultures thrived, producing pre-historic art such as that found in LArbreda Cave and in the Côa Valley. In the Mesolithic period, beginning in the 10th millennium BC and this was an interstadial deglaciation that lessened the harsh conditions of the Ice Age

6.
Narbonne
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Narbonne is a commune in southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies 849 km from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture, once a prosperous port, and a major city in Roman times, it is now located about 15 km from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It is marginally the largest commune in Aude, although the prefecture is the slightly smaller commune of Carcassonne, Narbonne is linked to the nearby Canal du Midi and the Aude River by the Canal de la Robine, which runs through the centre of town. The towns original name is very ancient, the earliest known record of its original name is by the Greek Hecataeus of Miletus in the fifth century BC. In ancient inscriptions the name is rendered in Latin and sometimes translated into Iberian as Nedhena. Narbonne was established in Gaul by the Romans in 118 BC, as Colonia Narbo Martius and it was located on the Via Domitia, the first Roman road in Gaul, built at the time of the foundation of the colony, and connecting Italy to Spain. In addition, it was crossed by the Aude River, surviving members of Julius Caesars Legio X Equestris were given lands in the area that today is called Narbonne. Politically, Narbonne gained importance as a competitor to Massalia, Julius Caesar settled veterans from his 10th Legion there and attempted to develop its port while Marseille was supporting Pompey. Among the amenities of Narbonne, its rosemary-flower honey was famous among Romans, later, the province of Transalpine Gaul was renamed Gallia Narbonensis after the city, which became its capital. Seat of an administration, the city enjoyed economic and architectural expansion. At that point, the city is thought to have had 30, 000–50,000 inhabitants, according to Hydatius, in 462 the city was handed over to the Visigoths by a local military leader in exchange for support, as a result Roman rule ended in the city. It was subsequently the capital of the Visigothic province of Septimania, for 40 years, from 719, Narbonne was part of the Umayyad Empire with a strong Gothic presence. The Carolingian Pepin the Short conquered Narbonne from the Muslims in 759 after which it part of the Carolingian Viscounty of Narbonne. He invited, according to Christian sources, prominent Jews from the Caliphate of Bagdad to settle in Narbonne, in the 12th century, the court of Ermengarde of Narbonne presided over one of the cultural centers where the spirit of courtly love was developed. In the 11th and 12th centuries, Narbonne was home to an important Jewish exegetical school, Jews had settled in Narbonne from about the 5th century, with a community that had risen to approximately 2000 in the 12th century. At this time, Narbonne was frequently mentioned in Talmudic works in connection with its scholars, one source, Abraham ibn Daud of Toledo, gives them an importance similar to the exilarchs of Babylon. In the 12th and 13th centuries, the community went through a series of ups, Narbonne itself fell into a slow decline in the 14th century, for a variety of reasons. One was due to a change in the course of the Aude River, the Aude river had a long history of overflowing its banks

7.
Franks
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Some Franks raided Roman territory, while other Frankish tribes joined the Roman troops of Gaul. In later times, Franks became the rulers of the northern part of Roman Gaul. The Salian Franks lived on Roman-held soil between the Rhine, Scheldt, Meuse, and Somme rivers in what is now Northern France, Belgium, the kingdom was acknowledged by the Romans after 357 CE. Following the collapse of Rome in the West, the Frankish tribes were united under the Merovingians, who succeeded in conquering most of Gaul in the 6th century, which greatly increased their power. The Merovingian dynasty, descendants of the Salians, founded one of the Germanic monarchies that would absorb large parts of the Western Roman Empire, the Frankish state consolidated its hold over the majority of western Europe by the end of the 8th century, developing into the Carolingian Empire. This empire would gradually evolve into the state of France and the Holy Roman Empire, in the Middle Ages, the term Frank was used in the east as a synonym for western European, as the Franks were then rulers of most of Western Europe. The Franks in the east kept their Germanic language and became part of the Germans, Dutch, Flemings, the Franconian languages, which are called Frankisch in Dutch or Fränkisch in German, originated at least partly in the Old Frankish language of the Franks. Nowadays, the German and Dutch names for France are Frankreich and Frankrijk, respectively, the name Franci was originally socio-political. To the Romans, Celts, and Suebi, the Franks must have seemed alike, they looked the same and spoke the same language, so that Franci became the name by which the people were known. Within a few centuries it had eclipsed the names of the tribes, though the older names have survived in some place-names, such as Hesse. Following the precedents of Edward Gibbon and Jacob Grimm, the name of the Franks has been linked with the word frank in English and it has been suggested that the meaning of free was adopted because, after the conquest of Gaul, only Franks were free of taxation. It is traditionally assumed that Frank comes from the Germanic word for javelin, there is also another theory that suggests that Frank comes from the Latin word francisca meaning. Words in other Germanic languages meaning fierce, bold or insolent, eumenius addressed the Franks in the matter of the execution of Frankish prisoners in the circus at Trier by Constantine I in 306 and certain other measures, Ubi nunc est illa ferocia. Feroces was used often to describe the Franks, contemporary definitions of Frankish ethnicity vary both by period and point of view. According to their law and their custom, writing in 2009, Professor Christopher Wickham pointed out that the word Frankish quickly ceased to have an exclusive ethnic connotation. North of the River Loire everyone seems to have considered a Frank by the mid-7th century at the latest. Two early sources describe the origin of the Franks are a 7th-century work known as the Chronicle of Fredegar. Neither of these works are accepted by historians as trustworthy, compared with Gregory of Tourss Historia Francorum, the chronicle describes Priam as a Frankish king whose people migrated to Macedonia after the fall of Troy

8.
Pyrenees
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The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain. For the most part, the main crest forms a divide between France and Spain, with the microstate of Andorra sandwiched in between. The Crown of Aragon and the Kingdom of Navarre have historically extended on both sides of the range, with smaller northern portions now in France and larger southern parts now in Spain. The demonym for the noun Pyrenees in English is Pyrenean, in Greek mythology, Pyrene is a princess who gave her name to the Pyrenees. The Greek historian Herodotus says Pyrene is the name of a town in Celtic Europe, Hercules, characteristically drunk and lustful, violates the sacred code of hospitality and rapes his hosts daughter. Pyrene gives birth to a serpent and runs away to the woods, alone, she pours out her story to the trees, attracting the attention of wild beasts who tear her to pieces. After his victory over Geryon, Hercules passes through the kingdom of Bebryx again, and all the rock-cliffs and wild-beast haunts echo back Pyrene. … The mountains hold on to the name through the ages. Pliny the Elder connects the story of Hercules and Pyrene to Lusitania, the Spanish Pyrenees are part of the following provinces, from east to west, Girona, Barcelona, Lleida, Huesca, Navarra and Gipuzkoa. The French Pyrenees are part of the following départements, from east to west, Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Hautes-Pyrénées, the independent principality of Andorra is sandwiched in the eastern portion of the mountain range between the Spanish Pyrenees and French Pyrenees. Physiographically, the Pyrenees may be divided into three sections, the Atlantic, the Central, and the Eastern Pyrenees, together, they form a distinct physiographic province of the larger Alpine System division. In the Western Pyrenees, from the Basque mountains near the Bay of Biscay of the Atlantic Ocean, at the eastern end on the southern side lies a distinct area known as the Sub-Pyrenees. On the French side the slopes of the range descend abruptly. The Pyrenees are older than the Alps, their sediments were first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras, the intense pressure and uplifting of the Earths crust first affected the eastern part and moved progressively to the entire chain, culminating in the Eocene Epoch. The eastern part of the Pyrenees consists largely of granite and gneissose rocks, the massive and unworn character of the chain comes from its abundance of granite, which is particularly resistant to erosion, as well as weak glacial development. Low passes are lacking, and the roads and the railroads between France and Spain run only in the lowlands at the western and eastern ends of the Pyrenees. A notable visual feature of mountain range is La Brèche de Roland, a gap in the ridge line. Coal deposits capable of being profitably worked are situated chiefly on the Spanish slopes, the open pit of Trimoun close to the commune of Luzenac is one of the greatest sources of talc in Europe

9.
Collioure
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Collioure is a commune in the Pyrénées-Orientales department in southern France. The town of Collioure is on the Côte Vermeille, in the canton of Côte Vermeille, Collioure is named Cotlliure in Catalan. Collioure used to be divided into two separated by the river Douy, the old town to the south named Port dAvall. Collioure was taken in 1642 by the French troops of Maréchal de la Meilleraye, a decade later, the town was officially surrendered to France by the 1659 Treaty of Pyrenees. Nevertheless, Collioure was besieged and occupied by the Spanish troops in 1793, the blockade was broken a year later by general Jacques François Dugommier. In 1823, the territory of Port-Vendres became a commune, taking parts from the communes of Collioure and Banyuls-sur-Mer. On 21 January 1870, a climatic phenomenon occurred in Collioure, as observed by Charles Naudin at the time. Many orchards as well as oak woodlands were damaged. Collioure is the name of an Appellation dOrigine Contrôlée situated around the town, producing red, rosé, the ancient terraced vines in the hills behind the town also provide grapes for the apéritif and dessert wines of the appellation, which shares its boundaries with the Collioure appellation. Collioure is also famous for its anchovies, which are referenced in Mark Kurlanskys book Salt as the best in the world. As the town has a strong Catalan culture, its own motto has been adopted by one of the local Catalan rugby teams, Sempre endavant, mai morirem. Under Michel Molys leadership, the town has an alternative motto, the annual Saint Vincent festival is held around August 15, attracting twice the towns population in visitors for several days of celebration with music and fireworks. In the early 20th century Collioure became a center of artistic activity, collioures cemetery contains the tomb of Spanish poet Antonio Machado, who fled here to escape advancing Francoist troops at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939. The British historical novelist Patrick OBrian lived in the town from 1949 until his death in 2000 and he also wrote a biography of Picasso, who was an acquaintance. OBrian and his wife Mary are also buried in the town cemetery, part of the action in Stephen Clarkes fourth comic novel featuring Paul West, Dial M for Merde, takes place in Collioure. Ninety-eight reproductions of Matisse’s and Derain’s works are exposed exactly where these two masters of Fauvism painted the originals, in the early 20th century, Antonio Machado, Spanish poet died in Collioure. René Llense, football player born in Collioure, Patrick OBrian, English novelist and translator, lived and was buried in Collioure

10.
Scalping
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Scalping is the act of cutting or tearing a part of the human scalp, with hair attached, from the head of an enemy as a trophy. Scalping independently developed in various cultures in both the Old and New Worlds, Herodotus related that Scythian warriors would behead the enemies they defeated in battle and then present the heads to their king, in order to claim their share of the plunder. He hangs these handkerchiefs on the bridle of his horse, and is proud of them. The best man is the man who has the greatest number. ”Ammianus Marcellinus noted the taking of scalps by the Alani, a people of Asiatic Scythia, in terms quite similar to those used by Herodotus. Although Duncan travelled widely in Dahomey, and described such as the taking of heads. The scalp separated from the skull along the plane of the connective tissue. Scalping was not in itself fatal, though it was most commonly inflicted on the wounded or the dead. Collectively, such tools were used for a variety of everyday tasks like skinning and processing game. Indeed, the taking of a scalp of a woman or child was considered honorable because it signified that the taker had dared to enter the very heart of the enemys territory. Many tribes of Native Americans practiced scalping, in some instances up until the end of the 19th century, of the approximately 500 bodies at the Crow Creek massacre site,90 percent of the skulls show evidence of scalping. The event took place circa 1325 CE, in the 1710s and 20s, New France engaged in frontier warfare with the Natchez people and the Meskwaki people, during which both sides would employ the practice. There were six colonial wars with New England and the Iroquois Confederacy fighting New France, all sides scalped victims, including noncombatants, during this Frontier warfare. Massachusetts created a scalp bounty during King Williams War in July 1689, during Queen Annes War, by 1703, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was offering $60 for each native scalp. During Father Rales War, on August 8,1722, Massachusetts put a bounty on native families, ranger John Lovewell is known to have conducted scalp-hunting expeditions, the most famous being the Battle of Pequawket in New Hampshire. New York passed a Scalp Act in 1747, during Father Le Loutres War and the Seven Years War in Nova Scotia and Acadia, French colonists offered payments to Indians for British scalps. In 1749, British Governor Edward Cornwallis offered payment to New England Rangers for Indian scalps, both the Mikmaq people and the British killed combatants and non-combatants. Also during the Seven Years War, Governor of Nova Scotia Charles Lawrence offered a reward for male Mikmaq scalps in 1756, when Hamilton was captured in the war by the colonists, he was treated as a war criminal instead of a prisoner of war because of this. However, American historians have conceded that there was no proof that he had ever offered rewards for scalps

11.
Ancient Rome
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In its many centuries of existence, the Roman state evolved from a monarchy to a classical republic and then to an increasingly autocratic empire. Through conquest and assimilation, it came to dominate the Mediterranean region and then Western Europe, Asia Minor, North Africa and it is often grouped into classical antiquity together with ancient Greece, and their similar cultures and societies are known as the Greco-Roman world. Ancient Roman civilisation has contributed to modern government, law, politics, engineering, art, literature, architecture, technology, warfare, religion, language and society. Rome professionalised and expanded its military and created a system of government called res publica, the inspiration for modern republics such as the United States and France. By the end of the Republic, Rome had conquered the lands around the Mediterranean and beyond, its domain extended from the Atlantic to Arabia, the Roman Empire emerged with the end of the Republic and the dictatorship of Augustus Caesar. 721 years of Roman-Persian Wars started in 92 BC with their first war against Parthia and it would become the longest conflict in human history, and have major lasting effects and consequences for both empires. Under Trajan, the Empire reached its territorial peak, Republican mores and traditions started to decline during the imperial period, with civil wars becoming a prelude common to the rise of a new emperor. Splinter states, such as the Palmyrene Empire, would divide the Empire during the crisis of the 3rd century. Plagued by internal instability and attacked by various migrating peoples, the part of the empire broke up into independent kingdoms in the 5th century. This splintering is a landmark historians use to divide the ancient period of history from the pre-medieval Dark Ages of Europe. King Numitor was deposed from his throne by his brother, Amulius, while Numitors daughter, Rhea Silvia, because Rhea Silvia was raped and impregnated by Mars, the Roman god of war, the twins were considered half-divine. The new king, Amulius, feared Romulus and Remus would take back the throne, a she-wolf saved and raised them, and when they were old enough, they returned the throne of Alba Longa to Numitor. Romulus became the source of the citys name, in order to attract people to the city, Rome became a sanctuary for the indigent, exiled, and unwanted. This caused a problem for Rome, which had a large workforce but was bereft of women, Romulus traveled to the neighboring towns and tribes and attempted to secure marriage rights, but as Rome was so full of undesirables they all refused. Legend says that the Latins invited the Sabines to a festival and stole their unmarried maidens, leading to the integration of the Latins, after a long time in rough seas, they landed at the banks of the Tiber River. Not long after they landed, the men wanted to take to the sea again, one woman, named Roma, suggested that the women burn the ships out at sea to prevent them from leaving. At first, the men were angry with Roma, but they realized that they were in the ideal place to settle. They named the settlement after the woman who torched their ships, the Roman poet Virgil recounted this legend in his classical epic poem the Aeneid